According to a report by Israeli TV Channel 12, a broken air conditioner nearly foiled the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on July 31, who appeared to be about to change rooms before staff at the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) guesthouse in Tehran were able to repair the cooling system, The Times of Israel reports, quoted by FOCUS.
The TV offers new details about the operation days after Defense Minister Israel Katz became the first senior Israeli official to confirm that Israel was behind it.
The Israeli decision to eliminate Haniyeh comes shortly after October 7, when the Hamas leader was placed somewhere at the top of a list compiled by senior intelligence officials. It was just a question of when.
Haniyya lives in Qatar, but his assassination there risks derailing the hostage negotiations that Doha has been brokering since the start of the war. Accordingly, the options for where to assassinate Haniyeh are Turkey, Moscow and Tehran - three countries that the Hamas leader visits frequently.
Israel fears a fierce reaction from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and also does not want to anger Russian President Vladimir Putin, which leaves Iran as the most suitable option, the network claims.
The fact that Haniyeh has repeatedly stayed at the same Iraqi Guard guesthouse in the upscale northern Tehran neighborhood of Saadat Abad makes the operation easier to plan.
However, he was guarded as an honored guest by the Iraqi Guard's top personal security team, which required extensive infiltration to carry out the assassination.
Over the past few decades, Israeli assassinations of high-ranking Hamas officials have failed. Therefore, in recent years, the various security agencies have been working to improve their cooperation to increase their chances of success, the report states.
According to foreign media reports, the initial Israeli plan was to assassinate Haniyeh when he arrived in Tehran for the funeral of former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash on May 19. However, the operation was postponed due to concerns that it would result in civilian deaths.
Israel waited more than two months to carry out the operation, when Haniyeh returned for the inauguration of the new Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian.
There was a proposal to move the operation to the night before the inauguration, but the decision was made to wait until after the ceremony, "to avoid further embarrassing Tehran".
Shortly before the ceremony, agents planted an improvised explosive device in Haniyeh's room near his bed. The improvised explosive device was slightly larger than Israel had planned, but still not large enough to harm people in neighboring rooms, Israeli media reported. However, there was enough material in the bomb to ensure that Haniyeh would be killed on the spot.
Shortly before the planned detonation, the air conditioning in Haniyeh’s room broke down and the Hamas leader left his room to call for help. He was absent for so long that there were concerns that Haniyeh had been moved to another room, which would have thwarted the entire operation, Channel 12 reported, citing a source familiar with the planning.
After a while, however, the air conditioning was repaired and Haniyeh returned to his room. Around 1:30 a.m. On the morning of , an improvised explosive device detonated, blowing a hole in the outer wall of Haniyeh's guest room and shaking the entire IRGC compound.
Within seconds, an IRGC first aid team arrived at Haniyeh's room, where they were soon forced to declare him dead.
Hanieh's deputy, Khalil al-Haya, then arrived and fell to his knees in tears upon seeing the bloodied body of the Hamas leader, Israeli media reported.
Analysts reported that the operation was too complex to have been carried out by Israeli agents, and explained that it would have required the participation of Iranian citizens, IRGC members, or Hamas officials. All three options have certainly been explored by Hamas and Iranian authorities.
Panic and fear are spreading within the ranks of the Islamic Republic (Iran), and the head of the IRGC's elite "Quds" force, Esmail Qaani, has been missing for weeks as Tehran tries to determine how exposed it is to further Israeli attacks.
Hours after the assassination, Qaani himself called Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and informed him that Haniyeh had been killed in an Israeli missile strike. Khamenei immediately ordered Iran to retaliate against Israel.
The message to Iran's supreme leader is a source of further embarrassment for the IRGC, given that it quickly became clear to those who investigated the guesthouse that a rocket was not the cause of Haniyeh's death.
The retaliatory operation was subsequently postponed, as Iran appeared to prioritize investigating the extent to which its leadership had been compromised by Israel.
Just two months later, Iran retaliated with a missile attack on Israel on October 1, which was largely thwarted by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) along with the US and Jordanian armies.
Haniyya was replaced as head of the Hamas politburo by Yahya Sinwar, until then the group's leader in Gaza. Sinwar's rule was short-lived, however, as he was killed by IDF troops in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on October 16.